There have been delays, alleged cancellations, and reports of cancellations, but Samsung appears to finally be launching the Galaxy S21 Fan Edition (FE) next week.
The company announced an Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 event taking place on October 20, and additional leaks from a Korean blog citing supply chain sources say the S21 FE will go on pre-order immediately at the event, with a street date of October 29.
As with all rumors, there’s always a chance that this won’t pan out. However, Samsung’s Unpacked events are only focused on hardware. With the absence of a Galaxy Note 20 and earlier leaked marketing around the S21 FE, it only makes sense that the phone will indeed be launching at that event.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE has been rumored to come with a Snapdragon 888 processor. Other specs include a 6.4-inch display, at least 128GB of storage, at least 6GB of RAM, and a set of triple cameras. With Samsung using the same chip in the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3, as well as all the other S21 variants, the chip shortage was thought to present an issue when it cam to the S21 FE. Apparently, Samsung has managed to either find a way around supply chain issues, either by limiting launch countries or using an Exynos chip as a backup.
As for the color options, the S21 FE is predicted to come in gray, green, violet, white, and light blue. Display analyst Ross Young says that Samsung will be judicious with its color options, with gray being the most widely sold color and blue having a limited run.
Of the S21 FE colors, gray is expected to account for more than 50% of the initial volume. Next is light green, light violet and white. There will also be a 5th color, blue, which will have limited volume.
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) October 13, 2021
Alongside the Galaxy S21 FE, ZDNet reports that Samsung could be launching a new “Bespoke” edition of the Galaxy Z Flip 3. This would offer enhanced color customizability options for the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in the same vein as the similarly named home appliance subbrand.